American Honda Motor Co. is hosting an ATV display contest for its dealers throughout the month of December. Four zone winners will receive $5,000 apiece, and one of those four will be selected via a random drawing to receive an additional $5,000, for a grand total prize of $10,000. Dealership personnel with creative tendencies are encouraged to show their wares.

“The contest has already been met with a lot of excitement,” said Dan Wright, national sales manager of American Honda Motor Co. “I’ve had zone managers telling me that dealers in their area are already telling them ‘Make the check. I’m going to win it.’”

The displays do not need to be holiday related, but many will be just that as the focus on the contest is “Work and Play.” The display must be focused Honda ATVs, and include Honda Bonus Buck incentives and Honda Finance offers. The displays also must be in a prime showroom location and remain in place until Dec. 31.

Dealers will submit digital photos of the completed display to qualify. Judging will take place in the Honda corporate office by the National Division Team.

The 2012 Honda FourTrax Foreman 4x4 ES with Electric Power Steering is only one of the many models that will be part of an ATV display contest at Honda dealerships during the holidays.

“The idea came from our district sales managers and field staff,” Wright said. “It was driven from the field and from the dealers. It’s an important time of year for sales, and ATVs are important vehicles for those sales. We wanted to support the dealers’ effort to bring that product to the forefront in their showrooms.”

At this time of year more than ever, retailers large and small turn to focal displays to draw customers to key products. That doesn’t mean the display needs to be entirely ATV-related.

“They will be primarily ATV, because that’s what dealers sell the most of with Honda right now, especially in November and December,” Wright said. “You could have a Big Red with CRF50F in the back with Santa driving.”

Wright will let each dealership’s personnel figure out the best way to present the display. He and his staff are simply aiming to provide dealers with an effective mechanism for increasing sales.

“One really important ingredient of this is that the zone managers or DSMs aren’t picking the winner,” Wright said. “We’ll put all of the pictures in a conference room here at the corporate office and the entire division will vote for their favorite display. So it’s really going to be driven by customer eyes.”

The contest also serves as a boost to Honda’s ongoing FourTrax Rewards program, in which dealers are being challenged via a sales performance contest. The display program figures only to enhance FourTrax sales.

“It’s not so much about the money the dealership can win,” Wright said. “It’s more about having interaction with customers and having fun with it. It’s about getting the product forefront in the stores and helping dealers close customers visually at this time of year. Floor traffic is at its peak at this time of year. Particularly if the dealership is busy and with a lot of dealerships having fewer salespeople than they have had in the past, the display can keep people occupied while they’re in the store. This contest is about the thousands of units we’re going to sell in the next 60 days.”

Wright has already heard that some dealerships plan to win, and if they do so, will divide the money amongst the sales staff.

“It’s an internal team-building project also,” Wright said.

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